Last Call for Paradise
by Freya-Kendra
Summary: SG1 has finally found a real, Polynesian Paradise. But when they discover its flaw, do they provide the poison or the cure? This is a full team fic in which all 4 members have key roles. Focus of hurt is Daniel; focus of angst is Jack.
1. Chapter 1

www. Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**Last Call for Paradise**

**Author: **Freya-Kendra

**Original Zine:** Ad Astra Per Aspera, September, 2001; **First electronic posting**: January, 2005

**Summary**: SG1 has finally found a real, Polynesian Paradise. But when they discover its single flaw, do they provide the poison or the cure?

This is a full team fic in which all 4 members have key roles; however, the hurt is focused on Daniel, and the angst is centered on Jack.

Drama; Angst; H/C.

**Note****:** I attempted with this story to establish a Polynesian-like world, but I had no intention of trying to mirror Polynesian culture. Centuries or millennia of divergent histories should account for considerable differences.

All names for people and objects in Hoku-au were taken from the "Coconut Boyz Hawaiian Dictionary," which no longer resides at its previous URL but might still be found via search; again, names were not intended to be precise. According to this web dictionary:

Hoku-au = "morning star"

Puka-Komo = "doorway"

Kupuna Kane = "grandfather"

Kaakakona = "Jackson"

Akeneki = "Agnes"

Kahiko a'e Makaio = "Elder Matthew"

Wae'ana = "choice"

**Last Call for Paradise**

_by Freya-Kendra_

**1**

"It is said in the times of the old ones, the gods came through the Puka-Komo," the old tribal chieftain, Kupuna Kane, sagely informed his guests.

Akeneki, the beautiful island girl sitting beside Colonel Jack O'Neill seemed to recognize the confusion in his expression. "Your stargate," she clarified, almost directly in synch with Daniel Jackson's mention of the same word.

"The stargate?" Daniel asked.

Jack might have felt inclined to say "_jinx_," if he were not already so focused on the two young women next to him. Still, he could not help but notice his friend's smile, clearly in response to the intensity of Akeneki's subsequent giggle.

"Puka-Komo," Daniel continued after a moment. "That means 'stargate'?"

Smiling broadly, Akeneki nodded but said nothing more. It was time for Kupuna Kane to speak again.

"The gods brought great joy to the people of the Hoku-ao," he said, "and the greatest joy to the Wae'ana."

Jack O'Neill was only partially listening as he accepted a wooden bowl, almost flat enough to be called a plate, from one of the island girls. No. _Not girls_, he corrected himself. They were women in every respect, their shapely figures accentuated by the grass skirts riding their hips and the floral coverings that did little to veil their round, firm breasts. Taking another sip of the wine-like nectar, he found it hard to believe Daniel continued to concentrate on language.

"The Wae'ana?" Daniel's seemingly disembodied voice temporarily interrupted Jack's enjoyment of his current island view.

_Come on, Daniel. Just sit back and relax. You've earned it. We all have.  
_  
It was about time they found a vacation planet; and who better than SG1 to get first dibs? After seeing the MALP's initial images of a Polynesian paradise, complete with the obligatory hula-girl -- Akeneki, who had actually greeted the MALP by placing a wreath of flowers around the protruding camera -- Colonel O'Neill had been quick to volunteer SG-1 for the mission. Of course, his first obligation had been to the security of his team. Only after the 'all clear' was sounded did he allow himself to truly dive in to some of the pleasures of this particular paradise. But dive he did. And now he and his team were guests of honor at a first-class luau, held on the warm, soft sands of a pristine beach. There were no broken bottles, mangled cans or burger wrappers anywhere in sight, and the sun was just setting over the gently rolling waves of some unmapped, tropical ocean. The welcome smells of a feast hung thick in the air. Roast meat, fish, fruits and mushrooms mingled with the smoke of hundreds of bon-fires.

At the moment they were being entertained with a story. Daniel, the ever gracious guest, was an active listener -- a little too active for Jack's tastes.

"Those who were chosen," Kupuna Kane said in response to Daniel's question. "The most perfect among us. The gods would take the Wae'ana back with them through the Puka-Komo to live with them in the heavens. It was a glorious time for our people. But somehow we offended the gods, for they came to us no longer. And the Time of Darkness began. The winters grew harsh and bitter with cold. The summers grew dry. The crops ceased to flourish. Even the tides changed, and great flooding followed. Our people were dying."

"That was when the gods led us to the key," Akeneki interrupted with her now familiar giggle.

She was the younger sister of two of Jack's companions. Along with two other island girls, Akeneki had chosen Daniel just as her sisters had chosen Jack. But unlike her sisters, Akeneki's choice had been pretty much predetermined. She had first heard Daniel's voice through the MALP as he made his usual, '_we are peaceful explorers_' speech. When she later met the man to whom she came to believe the MALP was somehow connected, she attached herself to him so thoroughly Jack worried at first they might be facing another incident like that which had brought Sha're into Daniel's life. But as it turned out, Akeneki was following a much less committing tradition.

Each of the team members had quickly been selected by two or more of Hoku-ao's people. An uncomfortable Teal'c now had four women fawning over him. Major Carter was not doing too badly herself, with five island men of her own. Unlike Daniel and Teal'c, she did not seem particularly disconcerted by the attention. In fact, she seemed to be enjoying it, perhaps even a tad too much. Jack made a mental note to remind her about SGC regulations for dealing with off-world cultures.

As a slender hand snaked around his own neck, the colonel came to realize he might have to review those regulations himself.

"The key?" Daniel asked next.

The timing of Daniel's latest query, coinciding with Jack's musings about regulations, encouraged Colonel O'Neill to remember he was still an official representative of the SGC. He really should pay closer attention to the big Kahuna or Kupuna or whatever the old guy was called.

"One day at Planting," Kupuna Kane went on to answer, "a young boy named Kaakakona found the great disk, the key to the Puka-Komo, when he was digging in the sand near the altar. As his mother watched, he placed the disk atop the red globe, and a fierce noise arose from the great ring."

"Whoosh!" Several villagers imitated the sound of a stargate being activated, their faces beaming in delight as their hands gestured outwards in the air. The sound was repeated again and again, until it seemed as though everyone had a chance to add their own voice to the melee. Even then it took time before quiet was restored, as the "_whooshing_" was followed by rounds of hearty laughter.

After some degree of quiet was restored, Akeneki picked up the story. "The mother of Kaakakona ran through the village, hysterical in her wondrous joy. '_The gods have taken Kaakakona_.' She announced it to everyone she saw. '_The gods have taken my son to paradise_.'"

There again came Akeneki's delightful giggle.

_Daniel, Daniel._ Jack wordlessly berated his friend. _How can that not affect you?_

Somehow, Daniel seemed utterly oblivious, his eyes drawn instead to the old man.

"There were many who did not believe how this thing had happened with this good mother's son," Kupuna Kane continued where Akeneki had left off. "The mother of Kaakakona resolved to show them."

Akeneki could not resist interrupting yet again. "_Oh, but you are not Wae'ana_," she offered in a deep voice and pronounced scowl to imitate the ancient villagers. She giggled again before continuing in her own, soft tone. "Kaakakona's mother laughed with them, knowing they were right."

_She must really love to tell stories_, Jack considered. _And to giggle_.

Even Jack smiled, despite the underlying message. Akeneki's people had been freed from Goa'uld domination, then some stroke of dumb luck had brought a system lord back to paradise, and this Coca-Cola kid had been its first victim. A sad tale, but no one was crying, except maybe from too much laughter.

Well aware of the infectious nature of laughter, Jack let himself get carried away with it. It's an old story, after all, he told himself. They had seen no signs of Goa'uld presence since arriving on Hoku-au, not even in an historic sense. There was no evidence, other than this story, to suggest the Goa'uld had ever been there at all.

"The village voted and chose four Wae'ana," Akeneki continued, "two to represent the Planting, and two to represent the Harvest. Though they doubted Kaakakona's mother, they let her show them how the boy had opened the Puka-Komo. The Wae'ana were placed before it, and the gods swept each of them back up into the heavens."

_Oy!_ Jack saw that Daniel had not missed the cue either. His friend's eyes widened in horror.

"Wait...."

As expected, Daniel could not keep silent. Jack could only hope the perpetually chivalric Good Samaritan would not say too much in an attempt to point out the errors of these people's ways. They thought being sucked into the vortex of a forming wormhole was a _good_ thing. The truth might not sit well with them just now.

"Wait a minute," Daniel continued. "You're saying they stood in front of the stargate _before_ it was open, and ... and they let it reach for them? They didn't wait for it to open before they approached it?"

"Whoosh!" Again, all the villagers made the sound as they nodded, smiled and laughed.

"After the gods accepted the Wae'ana," the old man took up the tale again, "the crops flourished as never before. The famines and flooding were ended. There was much celebration. Even now, we continue that celebration. At the dawn of the season of Planting, and again at Harvest, four Wae'ana are chosen from among all the people of Hoku-au. Each choosing is a time of festival, and all the villages come together, as you see."

Jack had to admit the collection of bonfires stretching along the beach was daunting. Such a gathering might even be enough to persuade a feisty system lord to pack his bags and disappear once and for all, rather than face another rebellion like that which freed the ancient Egyptians. If these were the campfires of an army, it would mark a massive foe -- a massive foe that sent its best people into oblivion on a regular basis.

_What a waste_. Remembering stories he had heard about ritualistic sacrifices like tossing virgins into volcanoes, Jack had to admit the stargate was a better way to go – quicker, anyway. But he still did not like it, and he knew Daniel would be positively appalled.

"This season's choosing has already begun," Kupuna Kane continued. "We are honored you have returned from the heavens. We pray you will accept the Wae'ana who have already proved themselves in the trials of the past days."

The old man clapped his hands and shouted an odd collection of vowels. Two women and two men immediately responded to the command, both men detaching themselves from their places with Carter, and one of the women pulling away from Teal'c. Akeneki rose last. She planted a quick kiss on Daniel's cheek, giggled again, and then joined the others.

Jack noticed Daniel's interest in Akeneki perk up dramatically. Chivalry was definitely alive and kicking in his friend. Daniel Jackson was not going to sit back and watch this young woman gleefully commit suicide.

**2**

Jack watched Daniel pace in front of the DHD, where the four members of SG1 had finally drawn together hours after hearing the tale that had shattered their illusions of paradise.

"We can't let them go through with it, Jack."

Daniel's pacing was making him dizzy, but he made no attempt to stop the younger man. He would probably join him if he could, if his legs did not feel so much like rubber.

This was the first moment they'd had to speak in private, their constant companions finally having drifted off to sleep -- or whatever they had drifted off to do. And this was the first spot the team had found that had been unoccupied. With so many people from so many villages gathered together, there were no actual lodgings to provide any of the guests, not even such honored delegates as SG1, who had obviously come straight from the heavens, according to Kupuna Kane. Eventually, most of the locals had gone to sleep right on the beach.

Maybe '_passed out_' was a better way to describe it. That nectar was pretty powerful stuff. Jack's head was still spinning, though he had stopped drinking hours ago. How the heck could those people keep at it? There were some islanders _still_ whooping it up, and they would probably keep going until sunrise.

_Sunrise_. That would be oh, in about forty minutes or so, Jack decided, noticing that he was already starting to see his teammates more clearly under a gradually lightening sky. Soon the locals would gather around the stargate to watch the _'gods'_ take their much beloved and envied Wae'ana to the _'heavens.'_

"_Whoosh_," he repeated the sound softly, shaking his head at the naive charm with which these people sent their loved ones to their deaths.

Jack cleared his throat before finally responding to Daniel. "Oh, we can probably persuade them to stand aside until after the ... whoosh ... and then walk through like we do. We _are_ supposed to be from the heavens, after all. That might be enough to make them listen to us."

He paused until he saw Carter open her mouth for the expected rebuttal.

"_But_," he said loudly, watching the major's jaw close tight, "since we don't know where they'd be walking to -- unless the big guy will let us talk him into doing some recon -- that's not such a good idea either."

"No sir, it isn't," Carter quickly offered, apparently relieved to have the opportunity to share her concerns. "We wouldn't know whether the planet on the other side could even sustain life. It might not have a breathable atmosphere, or...."

"Or any number of things. I know, Carter. Might even be infested with Goa'uld."

"No," Daniel stopped his pacing. "If there were still Goa'uld on whatever world they've been gating to, don't you think one of the system lords would have figured out by now who's been...." He rolled his hand in the air, unable to find the right words.

"Knocking on their door?" Jack provided. "Ringing their doorbell then running away? Playing...."

"Yes," Daniel broke in. "That. And ... and why would the Goa'uld have stopped coming? Something had to have happened on that world. Maybe they were overrun by another system lord."

Carter nodded. "All the more reason to think the planet might no longer be inhabitable."

"Indeed," Teal'c added. "That world may well be contaminated."

Jack still could not argue with any of them. "Okay. Daniel, you're the cultural expert. Think we could persuade them to keep their Wee-Beni-Hana's right here from now on? To stop sending them to the...," Jack gestured as helplessly with his hands as Daniel had a moment earlier, and then finally added, "_whoosh_?"

Daniel nodded. "Probably ... _not_. Jack, these people have been doing this for centuries. It'd be like someone telling Christians to stop celebrating Christmas or Easter. I mean, think about it. Most of the traditions involving Christmas are actually derived from ancient pagan rituals. The Church couldn't get people to stop the old customs, so they just ... absorbed them. Eventually they changed the reasons -- why you hang mistletoe, for example. But they couldn't change the rituals themselves."

Raising his eyebrows in feigned surprise, Jack responded to the shift of topics with, "you mean mistletoe's not just for kissing?"

He shrugged at Daniel's withering look, and then offered his own input. "But the pagans stopped doing sacrifices, didn't they? The Church nipped that ritual in the bud. Maybe we could get the big Kahuna and his people to send something else through. Flowers, maybe."

Jack saw a spark of hope come alight in Daniel's eyes. _It's getting much brighter out here_, he realized then -- bright enough for him to actually _see_ Daniel's eyes. The colonel turned his attention to the beach.

"Well, whatever you're going to tell them, now's the time." He nodded to indicate the approaching contingent of elders.

"Me?" Daniel gave back his own look of feigned surprise.

"Of course. You don't want me talking to them, do you? Look at the mess I made of things at the treaty negotiations with Yu and Thor, and those other two arrogant ... _Goa'ulds._" He swallowed a far more descriptive expletive.

* * *

"How have we offended you?" Kupuna Kane dropped to his knees and laid his forehead at Daniel's feet, a posture that could not be easy for someone of his advanced years.

Daniel looked out at the faces of the surrounding villagers hoping to find understanding, hoping to see someone out there who could accept the new path he was offering them. What he saw instead was anguish, fear and sorrow. Even Akeneki's ever-present smile had been vanquished. Her eyes locked with his and dealt him a staggering blow when he glimpsed the depth of hurt he had caused her. It was a hurt that was reflected by all the Wae'ana. They had failed him. They were not good enough for Paradise. They were not special enough, not flawless enough to walk amongst the gods.

"No," he shouted hurriedly, trying to correct the wrong he had unwittingly committed. "Please. There has been no offense. You honor us greatly. The Wae'ana are perfect enough to be gods themselves. They belong here, with you. They can make you stronger with their strength."

The villagers began to look to one another for answers. Anguished glares turned to questioning glances, fear to bewilderment.

"They should continue to walk among you," Daniel continued, encouraged. "_This_ is Paradise, right here, right now. We," he turned and swept his hand to indicate all of SG1, "none of us have ever seen so much perfection. We should come to you, not you to us."

"Oy," Jack exclaimed in a soft whisper behind him. "Watch what you say there, Danny-boy. You might just find yourself setting up camp here for the duration."

Daniel ignored the warning. Instead he focused on the hesitant smiles he saw taking shape in the crowd, and the soft murmuring of budding discussions. Satisfied for the moment, he knelt to Kupuna Kane and waited for the old man to raise his eyes.

"The Time of Darkness will not return?" Kupuna Kane asked pitifully.

"No, Grandfather. No. This can be the dawn of a new age, the time of Hoku-au, the rise of the '_morning star_'. You don't need to look for Paradise in the heavens. You have already created it, right here."

"And what of the Wae'ana?"

Daniel looked up to the men and women who had been chosen, once again seeing Akeneki's pain. He still hoped, above all else, to help her smile again.

"Let them be the representatives of the heavens," he said to the old man, though his eyes did not leave Akeneki's, "of the gods themselves. Let them walk among you, to remind you of the Paradise you have created."

"Then the gods are pleased?"

Daniel gave his full attention back to Kupuna Kane. _How could he answer for the gods, whatever gods there were?_ But he could see his words were taking effect. The olive branch was being offered, and he was the only one able to accept it.

"Yes," he answered, smiling uncomfortably. "The gods are pleased."

As he looked out at the bountiful land displayed under the sun's growing brilliance, he realized his words might even be true.

* * *

The stargate was not opened that day. For the first time in generations, the feast of the Planting was not followed by the ritualistic opening of the Puka-Komo. The key was not placed upon the altar, or what SG1 referred to as the DHD. There was no '_whoosh_'. Above all, there was no sacrifice.

SG1 was sequestered away with the elders to discuss an uncertain future -- and, somewhere along the way, to discuss a treaty for the SGC's extraction of some of Hoku-au's plentiful naquadah. Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter both seemed pretty confident of a successful, win-win negotiation.

Daniel Jackson was somewhat less optimistic.

The people of Hoku-au were confused and concerned. Of course, they would follow whatever decisions the elders made, but if they did not greet those decisions enthusiastically, what would happen if ... _when_, he corrected himself; what would happen _when_ the weather patterns changed again? The droughts and famines and floods that had happened before were bound to recur eventually. Maybe, just maybe, with the help of the SGC the uncertain future might be a little less daunting.

Still, the image of a distraught Akeneki haunted him.

_(please proceed to Chapter 2)_

10


	2. Chapter 2

Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**3**

The sun was already beginning to set by the time his team had encouraged the elders to accept a promising solution, one Jack was proud to have had a hand in helping to develop. A second feast was prepared, though the atmosphere was somber compared with the previous evening's luau. It was a little hard to imagine why people would want to have a party if no one was in the partying mood. Still, it made sense. Daniel had said the people of Hoku-au needed the ritual. And the ritual was always preceded by a feast.

At dawn, they would gather once more at the stargate, or the Puka-Komo as they called it here. The key would be placed on the DHD, and the gate would _whoosh_ open as it always did. But this time the Wae'ana would not be made to stand before it. This time, they would stand safely away from the '_reach of the gods_'. Once the shimmering event horizon stabilized, each of the four would send an offering through to the other side, then would back away, destined themselves to remain right here, on this world.

As before, Jack and his teammates were surrounded by the beautiful companions who had selected them, but the attention they received this time seemed forced. There was very little, if any, spontaneity. Jack was keenly aware of the change. There were no snaking arms, no playful _whoosh_-ing sounds, and especially none of Akeneki's giggles. That was probably the greatest change of all, and one which was not lost on Daniel.

Daniel's attention was constantly drawn to Akeneki. Last night, Jack had thought him too interested in the old man. Tonight, he was too interested in the young woman.

* * *

Daniel saw Jack watching him. It was obvious his friend and team leader was worried that Daniel might be getting a little too involved. But how could he not?

He met Jack's eyes and gave a slight shake of his head before returning his attention to Akeneki. His concern for her was paramount. In his eyes, Akeneki's reactions symbolized what he had done to all the people of Hoku-au. Without intending to, Daniel had introduced them to the concept of failure, the idea that perfection had not been, and perhaps could not be attained.

Akeneki was far too withdrawn. It seemed she had become someone else, someone vastly different from the spirited island girl to whom he had first been introduced. There was an emptiness in her dark eyes, as though something was missing from her soul. Each time Daniel looked her way, she somehow sensed his attention and turned to greet it openly. She gave herself completely to him with those eyes, holding nothing back. She gave him the whole of her shattered spirit. Her eyes said she had failed him. And there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say to amend her beliefs. He could not fill that emptiness. He could not make her whole again.

Paradise was beginning to feel very, very cold.

* * *

Another sunrise, another gathering.

Daniel looked out at the crowd of thousands watching from the beach, from the hillsides, even from the tops of trees. Yet, despite the throngs, the silence was palpable. Through it, he could hear the lighthearted songs of birds, a sound he had been oblivious to the day before. If he closed his eyes, he might believe the birds were alone here, that the people of Hoku-au were mere hallucinations, a vision made unreal by the utter lack of accompanying sound. This was what he had done to them. As he had witnessed with Akeneki the night before, they had all become empty, lost, bereft of something integral to their very existence.

He had saved Akeneki and the other Wae'ana from certain death. But at what cost? Had he just planted a seed of doubt so strong it could sprout an epidemic of cynicism, one that might infest Hoku-au's entire cycle of Planting and Harvest?

'_If you build it, they will come_,' someone said, once upon a time. But what if you tear it down? What then?

Daniel had the distinct feeling he may have personally ushered in the next crippling series of famines and floods, brought on by a broken people's own sense of hopelessness.

He listened closely when the ceremony began in earnest with a series of speeches, given by each of the elders and performed with great care and deliberation -- probably with much greater care than usual. Clearly, many words had been changed for the establishment of a new tradition. Daniel could hear words being retracted, replaced. He briefly imagined a child standing in class to recite the pledge of allegiance and being told at the last minute to say it differently, to remove two little words. It was not a far-fetched thought. _'One nation, under God, indivi_sible...' someday could very well become, simply, '_one nation, indivisible_.' How easily would anyone be able to make even such a minute change in something they had been reciting for years?

Daniel was still contemplating that when a young boy, presumably a representative for Kaakakona, approached the DHD and placed something into the waiting hands of Kupuna Kane. The flat, round object, marked with the same glyphs as those etched into the stargate, had to be the key from the stories. A large hole at its center identified how it might fit over the red globe atop the DHD.

Kupuna Kane held the disk skyward, looking like a priest blessing the articles of communion. He once again stumbled over some long remembered and suddenly changed words before setting the key into place atop the DHD with exaggerated formality. Moments later, the familiar _whoosh_ heralded the opening of the gate.

Daniel glanced over the old man's shoulder to try to identify the address the disk had mysteriously dialed. It was no use, however. The key covered whatever symbols had been activated. Yet his disappointment was short-lived. This was truly an ingenious way for the 'gods' to protect their heavenly abode. Sam's wide eyes made it clear she agreed. Even Teal'c seemed impressed. Jack, on the other hand, definitely was _not_ a happy camper.

*** * * **

The four Wae'ana were called to stand before the DHD, each accepting, in his or her turn, the offering he or she would present to the gods. The two men were given ornately crafted wooden platters, laden with fish and fruits. Akeneki received a basket of flowers. The other woman took an urn filled with nectar. Then, one by one, each approached the stargate to set the gift into the shimmering, blue waves, sending it on its way to the heavens.

But the gifts were not the only offerings to be made that day, for each of the Wae'ana also presented the gate with an intense look of longing, of envy, the desire to follow.

Akeneki was the last to bring her offering. She placed the basket into the event horizon and took a tentative step back, watching as it was slowly pulled into the watery light. After it had vanished, she turned her sad eyes back to Daniel.

There was a change in those eyes, in that look she gave him. Instead of pain and emptiness he saw what looked like a plea.

_Forgive me_, her gaze seemed to say.

He was still wondering at this change when she turned back to face the gate.

_Forgive me_.

In a startling instant, she ran forward and disappeared into the blue.

Shocked, Daniel stepped out from behind the DHD. He could hear a cacophony of voices behind him, but like the songs of the birds before, whatever was being said was lost on him.

He stared in morbid disbelief at the event horizon. Akeneki was alone. Wherever she had gone, she could never return. Even if there was a functioning DHD on the other side of that wormhole, she would have no knowledge of its use.

Daniel thought of Ernest, a man who had stepped blindly into a wormhole and been forced to live completely apart from civilization, to exist with no one but himself, entirely alone for fifty years. That thought was enough to send Daniel chasing after Akeneki. He jumped through as the wormhole began to destabilize. Before his teammates could even give thought to what he had done, it had already disengaged.

**4**

Daniel's hasty journey through the stargate assured him of a somewhat less than graceful landing, but he had not been prepared to end up with a face full of raw fish. He rose, sputtering out the unpleasant taste, and discovered the chilling effects of the wormhole were quickly being replaced by the sense that he had just stepped into an oven. He looked up and regretted the action immediately. The sun was bright, almost blinding in its brilliance. Squinting against its merciless glare, he held his hand up to shield his eyes and gazed out over a desert of hard, cracked earth.

"Akeneki?"

"Daniel Jackson?" So unlike the Akeneki he had come to know, this was the voice of a frightened child.

He turned to find the young woman kneeling beside the spilled flower basket. She looked up at him with pleading innocence.

"The gods," her breath quickened into sharp gasps, "I have offended them."

"No." Daniel bent down to join her and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "No. You have done nothing wrong. I .. I should have told you the truth. I should have just been honest. But I was trying to protect you." He shook his head at the irony.

Several minutes passed in sweltering silence as Akeneki considered his words.

"What ... truth?" She asked.

Her eyes were so pure, so trusting. Daniel envied her naiveté. _Must he steal that from her as well?_

"Your ... gods...." _How could he say it? _He studied her once more, but he could not say the words with those eyes looking at him. He had to turn away.

_The beings that came through your Puka-Komo were not gods. They were evil. They stole your people to use them as slaves. _ How could he say these things to her? He took a deep breath. The stifling air felt like it might singe his lungs. He almost wished it would, so he would not have to say the things he dreaded.

"Your gods destroyed this world. That's why they stopped coming through the Puka-Komo. They were not perfect. That was what I was trying to tell you back ... on Hoku-au. Your people have achieved perfection. Your gods ... did not."

He looked at her once more. The tears had stopped. A slight wrinkle in her brow told of her confusion.

"That's why we didn't want you to ... to come here anymore. This Paradise is gone. But you have your own Paradise back on Hoku-au."

Akeneki's eyes widened. "Paradise is ... forever."

Daniel opened his mouth, but found no words. He finally settled on shaking his head, and offering a feeble, "I'm sorry. Not this one."

"Oh, Daniel Jackson. The gods are ... _dead_?"

_So many ways to answer, and all of them wrong_. Daniel tested each before he uttered a sound. He realized he must look like a beached fish, which was probably a fitting description, given his earlier landing. Finally, "the gods who used the Puka-Komo, yes, those gods are dead." _There_. He provided hope. Without really saying it, he let her know there may be other gods. Her people did not have to completely forsake all sacred rites, all means of worship, all hopes for an eternity of bliss.

"I'm sorry," he said again, and then he held her, doing his best to ignore the oppressive heat. His best lasted only a few seconds.

Drawing away, Daniel cleared his throat of the mouthful of sand it seemed he must have inhaled. "I think it's time for us to go back, don't you?"

A small, frightened nod gave him his reply.

Daniel walked to the DHD, praying all the while that he would find some indication of the planet's address. But when he reached the device he quickly learned glyphs were the least of his worries. The red globe was broken. The power crystals were gone.

* * *

"Dammit, Daniel!" Jack complained to the empty stargate when the key failed once again to activate it.

He whirled back to face Carter. "What's wrong with that thing, Major?"

"I don't know." She turned to the man beside her. "Kupuna Kane?"

The old man shook his head. He had been reluctant to allow Major Carter to use the key in the first place. They had never before attempted to reactivate the Puka-Komo so soon after a ceremony. He was particularly reluctant to do so without more pomp and circumstance. By the time they finally got him to agree, they discovered it did not seem to matter anyway. It was not working. And the old man clearly had no idea why not.

"In that story you and Akeneki told us the other night," Sam prodded, "how much time actually elapsed between the boy's finding the key and the first ceremony with the Wae'ana?"

"Time? That has never been a part of the telling."

Jack scowled. "Well great. Just great. Ya' see, that's why books are a _good_ thing. Writing is a _good_ thing." His anger needed an outlet. The lack of any written language on Hoku-au had only frustrated Daniel before. Now, Jack let it become his own, personal annoyance.

"Colonel," Major Carter raised her eyebrows, as though to silently say, _just be patient. Complaining about what we don't have isn't going to help us at all._

After Carter returned her attention to the old man without saying anything further to Jack, he met Teal'c's eyes in his own silent way of asking, _what was that?_ But Teal'c only cocked his head, suggesting he thought Carter's quiet reprimand had been justified.

Jack blew out an empty retort.

"How long might it have taken to select those first Wae'ana?" Carter asked Kupuna Kane.

"The village would not have acted alone. It is likely they would have called all the villages together. Perhaps there were no trials, as there are today.... Still, it may have taken many weeks."

"Then it's possible this key has some sort of delay mechanism. It may need a certain amount of time to reset itself."

"Great. Just great." Jack clenched his teeth. He was eager to hit something, to mangle something. Anything. It was good that key was not in his hands. He would have wanted to take his aggression out on it. "Okay, Carter. If you take that back with you to the SGC, do you think you can analyze it? See if you can find the reset button? Maybe get a fingerprint or something to show the address it's linked to?"

"It's worth a try, sir."

"Good. Do it."

"Kupuna Kane?" Carter looked to the old man for permission.

His eyes grew wide. "You cannot...."

Jack held up one hand to prevent Kupuna Kane's censure, and another to stop Carter from wasting time by stepping into what needed to be _his_ conversation. "It's all right, Major. Do it."

* * *

Carter was both reluctant and nervously excited when she dialed home. She tried to ignore Kupuna Kane's protests, hoping the colonel and Teal'c could set things straight with the old man. But as she moved into the open gate with the key in her possession, the resounding outcry raised by the hundreds still gathered nearby suggested that appeasing the old man would be the least of their concerns. She could only hope Teal'c did most of the talking.

* * *

Daniel kept himself busy while waiting for the gate to open. He fully expected to receive radio contact from his teammates at any moment, but every minute that passed in silence was already one too many. This sun was deadly.

By breaking up the wooden platters, he was able to make small poles out of splinters of wood, tied together with scraps torn from the hem of his jacket, saving the sleeves to ensure his arms remained protected. After setting the poles into cracks in the ground, Akeneki placed her grass skirt atop them -- an offering Daniel was ready to refuse if not for the short sarong she had worn underneath.

This makeshift shelter would not suffice for long, however. It offered a poor shield against the blistering rays of the sun, and could do nothing to reduce the impact of the heat. It was also better suited to protecting one person than two. And Daniel had no idea how long their time here might be.

He had to admit to himself that he was worried. No news in this case was definitely not good news. He would be wise to prepare for the worst.

With no sign of trees or scrub of any kind, no hills, no rocks, nothing from horizon to horizon, he knew their best bet for protection would be underground.

Which meant he had better start digging.

He convinced Akeneki to remain in the shelter. Though her skin was darker than his and more accustomed to strong sunlight, she was far too scantily clad to survive long under these conditions. He, on the other hand, was covered from head to toe, thanks to his SGC regulation gear, including the boonie hat he had stuffed into his belt back on Hoku-au. His hands would be at risk, but there was nothing he could do for them.

Using the only tool available, his belt knife, Daniel started cutting the dry, clay-like dirt into bricks. Though the ground was hard, it gave way fairy well to the sharp blade, and came up without much effort.

Unfortunately, the dirt beneath was no different, no darker, no cooler than that on the surface. He would have to dig an awfully deep hole to accomplish what he'd hoped. Already drenched in sweat and frighteningly aware of the angry burns developing on his hands, he knew he did not stand a chance digging such a hole on his own.

Yet the bricks gave him another idea. He could use them to form a three-walled hovel, with the DHD as its base.

Satisfied with this new idea, Daniel carefully stacked the bricks he had already fashioned, then started digging for more. He stabbed at the ground, cut out a thick chunk, placed it atop the brick underneath, and repeated the process, over and over again.

He lost count of the bricks he made.

He lost time.

He lost salt.

Eventually, he lost consciousness.

_(please proceed to Chapter 3)_

9


	3. Chapter 3

Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**5**

Daniel awoke at nightfall, his eyes fluttering open to see Akeneki's beautiful, smiling face hovering over him.

_She was smiling, wasn't she? How did that happen?_

A juicy piece of fruit touched his lips. _Moist, sweet, life-giving fruit_. Daniel detected a hint of mangoes. The moisture alone felt like a piece of heaven itself.

_Why did it smell so much like fish?_

Daniel blinked his eyes, hoping to dispel their dryness. But he found it impossible to develop the needed tears. _Maybe that's why she's smiling_, he thought. _She doesn't have any tears left. It's just too hot to cry._

Only it wasn't that hot anymore. In fact, it was cooling down very quickly. _Great_. The only thing better than a day in the desert was a night in one.

_But life in the desert's okay_. On Abydos, it was better than okay. Of course, on Abydos, he'd had the right clothes, the right shelter, sufficient water ... and Sha're.

_Don't go there_, Jack voice commanded.

_Was Jack here? No. He couldn't be. Could he?_

"Jack?" Daniel called out feebly.

"Daniel Jackson."

That was definitely not Jack's voice. Much too sweet to be Jack.

Daniel opened his eyes again, wondering when he had closed them. "Akeneki?"

There was that smile. He had not imagined it. He smiled back at her.

"You worked much too hard today," she scolded him.

"Yeah, well," he tried to push himself up, but cried out in pain and fell back.

"Your hands are red from the sun, Daniel Jackson. I have rubbed them with oil from the fish. It should help. Here, I will give you more."

As Akeneki reached for something behind her, Daniel tried to look at his hands. It was difficult to see how bad they were in the twilight, and with Akeneki's grass skirt roof in place.

_That's strange_. He did not remember finishing the shelter.

Akeneki's ministrations forced him back into the moment. She grabbed hold of his left hand and began to rub the oil onto his fingers.

He cried out once more. _Great. Not just burnt. Blistered_.

SG6 had been jealous about this mission. He could just hear them teasing him when he got home. '_So how was your tropical paradise, huh? Did ya' get enough sun?_'

When he got home.... _Would_ he get home?

_Don't go there, Daniel_.

"Jack, don't be an ass." He closed his eyes.

* * *

Jack sat on the beach watching the incoming waves under a bright, full moon. He had finally found a moment of solitude, a moment of quiet. He was beginning to wish he hadn't. With all the commotion he had caused after he'd told Sam to take the key, there had been no time for him to actually think about Daniel until now. And thinking was not always a good thing.

It had taken hours for him and Teal'c to brief Kupuna Kane on the truths they had previously sought to conceal, and hours more after that to quell an impending riot from the gathered masses. When they finally settled down to dine in a small ceremonial hut set deep in the jungle, alone this time with Kupuna Kane and a select few other leaders, Jack had half expected an angry mob of torch bearers to storm the 'castle'. But the people simply went off to ... wherever they went off to. Based on the extent of the quiet, he assumed most returned to their own villages. Luckily, the remainder of the evening was uneventful, save for the debates and arguments which took place inside the hut.

Now Jack was left alone with his thoughts.

He found he would rather still be arguing.

"Dammit, Daniel," he complained to the surf as he tossed a small stone into the waves. "Why do you always have to go off and do whatever you damn well please? You never consider the consequences."

No, that was not entirely true. Jack was certain Daniel considered some consequences, just not the ones the colonel had spent a lifetime considering.

_Have to hand it to you, Daniel. That was a damned noble gesture. I should start calling you Lancelot for the way you're always running off to rescue the damsel in distress with no thought to your own skin._

Jack dropped his head and let out a rush of air. He might not be calling Daniel anything, anymore. That noble knight might already have tried to rescue one damsel too many. He may already be dead.

A long night passed. An eternity. Sleep never became an option.

_What dreams may come once we have ... what was that again? Shucked off these mortal spoils?_

Jack remembered Sara reading that to him once upon a time in a distant fairy tale that might have been real life or might have just been its own dream. Hell, he'd rather risk the dreams of the dead than the dreams he would be forced to visualize under the command of his current thoughts.

Yet, despite the darkness of those thoughts, somehow the sun still managed to rise. Jack was amazed by all the colors that came to life as the orange orb climbed out of the water. So vibrant, so ... perfect.

What had his team done? Why had they come here?

He may have lost Daniel for good, this time. And if that was not enough, Jack had also helped to usher in an era of frightening change for an entire people.

_Dammit_. He should feel better about that change. But odd thoughts haunted him, foremost among them an old, 70's commercial with an Indian in a canoe, gliding through waters infested with debris and oil and myriad other pollutants. That's what he felt like. Jack was the pollutants. He was poison. First to his son. Then to his marriage. Now to Daniel, as well as to all the people of Hoku-au. Everything he touched was bound to decay right in front of his eyes.

_Here's Jack_, he thought sardonically. _Last call for Paradise. Better see it now, 'cos it sure as hell ain't gonna be here tomorrow._

* * *

Before dawn's light touched the trees, a deeper shadow pulled away from the rest, moving towards the beach and the man who had punished himself all night for the actions of another. Teal'c knew he would not be able to penetrate O'Neill's midnight solitude. So he had waited, standing a vigil his friend would never know about, until the other's eyes could truly be opened, could truly be made to see what he had been blind to in the night.

Teal'c crouched down on the sand beside the colonel, but said nothing. Instead, he followed his friend's gaze and watched the colors taking shape before them.

"If we cannot reach him," the Jaffa said a moment later, his eyes still locked on the rising sun, "I am confident Daniel Jackson will find the means to return home."

"Yeah, well," O'Neill sighed. "That makes one of us."

"He is a man of great intelligence. He is also a capable warrior."

At that remark, O'Neill turned to face the larger man, raising his eyebrows in surprise. "You're talking about _our_ Daniel Jackson?"

Teal'c met his gaze. "Indeed, I am."

The colonel chuckled darkly and shook his head before giving his attention back to the glowing horizon. "Daniel Jackson is a pain in the ass who runs head-long into disaster without a second thought."

"Daniel Jackson is a man who makes difficult choices for the sake of others."

O'Neill dropped his head. "_Choices_. I just wish he'd think for once about getting with the rest of us before making some of those choices of his."

"There was not enough time. If he had waited, Akeneki would have been abandoned."

"Well, that was _her_ choice now, wasn't it?" O'Neill swiveled around angrily. "_Hers_! Not Daniel's, or mine, or anyone else's."

"It was a choice based upon information we had provided. It is likely Daniel Jackson believed he was responsible."

"Dammit, Teal'c! We can't be responsible for the entire universe!"

The Jaffa caught O'Neill's gaze and held it. "Indeed, we cannot." But his eyes said what his words did not. _None of us can be responsible for the actions of another. Not even you._

**6**

As the stars winked back into life above him, Daniel waved at Akeneki and started jogging in the opposite direction of last night's excursion. This time, he pressed away from the bright star he had likened to the North Star on Earth, rising now in line with the center of the stargate. He would follow it later, to guide him home.

_Home?_ God, he could not already be considering this place 'home,' could he? He thought of Akeneki, how frightened she had been when they first landed here, and how calm and trusting she had become since. It was almost as though she had set up house in the little hovel they had built. She had taken control of seeing to both of their needs for food and what moisture they could obtain from the rotting fruit. She had even begun to smile again.

_How could she do that?_

Daniel had stolen her gods and her paradise. He had even driven her to this living hell. Yet somewhere along the way she had found acceptance.

Maybe it was just acceptance for the sake of survival, but he could not be certain. Though she outwardly seemed to be completely open with him, she said very little. He wondered if perhaps she simply did not know what to make of the changes he had brought into her life. Perhaps she could not read her own heart, and so could not share the true depth of her feelings with him. Yet within her eyes Daniel consistently saw something akin to contentment. He could almost believe she would be happy to stay here, alone with him, indefinitely.

Would she still be smiling if ... _when_ ... they returned to Hoku-au?

Of course, her smiles would fade soon enough if he did not find a water source. The fruit had sufficed thus far, but it was growing drier by the hour.

For the second night in a row, Daniel had taken it upon himself to investigate their surroundings, to go as far as he could, as fast as he could to look for any change in terrain. He jogged through the night's chill, fighting to ignore the pain brought on as the material in his jacket chafed against the ruined skin of his hands and neck, and working up a drastic thirst he knew he could not quench. He moved forward mechanically, somehow taking care to avoid turning his ankle on the hard, broken ground as he put more distance between himself and Akeneki, and the home she was creating. He let his mind wander farther still, into its own dark recesses and back again.

Three nights they had been here now -- three days and three nights. He had come to identify a twenty-hour day, and figured it must be around midnight on Hoku-au. For those he left behind it would only be the second night since he had jumped through the gate. He could imagine the worry and anger his teammates must be experiencing, the feelings he would have also, had any of them made the jump to an unknown and uninvestigated address. He wondered what was taking them so long to re-open the gate. But he had no doubt they were trying.

"I'm sorry, Jack," he said aloud. He pictured Akeneki, trembling as she knelt in front of her spilled flower basket, and shook his head. "But I'd do it again."

For another half mile or so, Daniel considered the planet's calendar. He was pretty sure they were approaching a summer season. Today's sun had set after ten hours and thirteen minutes, a full minute later than yesterday's. As hot as it had been, it could very well get much hotter. Yet even that did not matter. Without water, they would never survive to see just how hot this planet could get.

"Come on, Jack!" He shouted to the sky. "Why aren't you using that key?"

Then, "Damn. Stop it, Daniel," he berated himself. "You know they're trying."

He filled his lungs with cool air and expelled it in a puff before returning to a controlled rhythm of breathing more suited to the exercise.

Was the general behind the delay? Had he refused to assign the resources to a rescue effort? A simple acceptance of priorities, and a quick -- but heartfelt -- "he will be missed," before giving the order to send the next team to explore the next planet on the agenda? Or maybe it was Senator Kinsey pulling the SGC's funding once more. The senator wouldn't think twice about leaving Daniel to die here, alone, forgotten.

"Stop it! Don't be such an idiot. They're coming. Jack won't let you down."

His rhythm lost yet again by the outcry, Daniel tried to force his breathing back under control. It was not as easily done this time. He found himself panting.

Desperate to turn his thoughts in a different direction, he began to count his steps and regretted the decision instantly. Daniel Jackson had never been much for jogging. He hated the monotony, the strain on his lungs. If he allowed himself to continue to think about it, he would never make it through the night.

"Think. Concentrate," he said through gritted teeth, between spurts of hastily expelled breath. "Think about the moons."

There were four of them, and the last one was just beginning to rise. The first three were full, brilliant, round orbs in varying sizes. Judging from last night's display, Daniel expected the fourth to rise full tonight as well. With those and a billion stars to guide him, he had plenty of light to see for miles in any direction.

It accounted for nothing. All he ever saw was a flat, desolate wasteland. No hills. No rocks. No trees. Just miles upon miles of nothing. Whatever catastrophe had happened here had been thorough indeed.

An odd thought caught him mid-stride, causing him to stumble, though he quickly regained his balance. _What about the stargate and the DHD? How had they survived?_ If there truly had been a great city here, which had been his assumption since arriving, then whatever had caused this utter devastation surely could not have left the stargate untouched.

Daniel slowed his pace. _How had he not considered that before? _More importantly, what might it mean? He thought back to the stories Akeneki and Kupuna Kane had told during the luau.

_That was when the gods led us to the key_, Akeneki had said in that giggling way of hers.

The key.... It was only mentioned after the gods had stopped coming to Hoku-au. Maybe the gods had never even used it.

This might not be the planet the gods had come from, after all.

Still, the Goa'uld had to have left the key on Hoku-au for some reason. _Why?_ To trap curious travelers? Yet if that were the case, what purpose could it serve?

Maybe it was not the Goa'uld who had left the key after all. Maybe it was a race like the Asgard, and the key was intended to.... _To what?_ Rescue them? Daniel had to chuckle at the ridiculous thought. Some rescue that would be, sending an innocent victim to no-man's land.

Daniel stopped and turned to look behind him. He could still see the stargate in the distance.

Maybe water was not the only thing he should be seeking. There was something else here, some puzzle, some story that might be even more important to their survival than water.

"Don't be an ass, Daniel," he chided breathlessly. "Without water, nothing else matters."

Nonetheless, he could not stop himself from taking one step, two, back towards their hovel, back towards Akeneki's home away from home. There was no point to it, no logic to retracing his steps now, to returning so soon, without having made any real progress in his search. Still, he took another few steps, watching as the fourth moon cleared the horizon directly behind the gate. The moon was perfectly round, brilliantly full, and directly in line with the circle of the stargate.

Daniel's breath caught in his throat. The image was too perfect. His eyes riveted on the bright moon, he began to jog, and then to run outright. He felt suddenly as though he was in a race against time. There was something about that last moon's rise, something significant in the fact that all the moons were full. He ran as fast as he could, ignoring the burning in his lungs, the cramp in his side. All his instincts drew him forward. Nothing else mattered.

He became careless. His right foot caught in a crevice and twisted awkwardly under the full force of his weight. He heard snaps and pops that berated his foolishness, but whatever pain should have accompanied those sounds was buried at some level so deep inside him it might almost have been someone else's ankle. He continued onward, aware only that his pace had slowed and he was limping.

The moon rose higher. It began to align with the core of the stargate. Daniel became so enthralled by that event he ignored the alignment of the other moons. He failed to see how they began to come together overhead until the moment the fourth moon filled the circle of the gate and the other three shone down in a single column of focused, blinding white light that seemed to consume the DHD.

He sprinted towards the light. When he was no more than fifty yards away, the ground began to shake. It threw him to his knees, and forced him to crawl and claw his way forward until even that became impossible. Then he watched in awe and horror as the stargate, the DHD, the hovel and Akeneki were absorbed by the concentrated moonbeam. By the time his dazzled eyes readjusted from the glare, the space before him was as empty as the rest of this barren planet.

_(Please proceed to Chapter 4)_

9


	4. Chapter 4

Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**7**

Major Carter awoke with a start. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she fought to remember the tickling remnants of a distant dream. What came instead was her memory of the night before.

She had been studying the key from Hoku-au for too many hours to even count. Her concern for Daniel had driven her to push herself well beyond exhaustion. She remembered reaching for her coffee mug and finding it impossible to control her trembling hand when the general's voice startled her, causing her to spill the cold contents onto her knee.

"You've been working around the clock, Major. It's time you got some rest."

"With all due respect, sir, I really don't think I could sleep just now."

"I understand your concern. But you're no good to Dr. Jackson, or to yourself for that matter, if you completely wear yourself out. Get some sleep. That's an order."

She could not remember anything beyond that command. How she had ended up in this bunk was a total mystery to her. But she was thankful for it. She did feel better. Her mind was clearer than she could remember it having been for a very long time.

But there was that tickle again.

She shook her head, ran her fingers through her hair, and went straight to the lab.

"Anything?" she asked the team currently on duty.

No. Nothing new. They had put the disk through test after test, but the results thus far were pretty much useless. Though they had confirmed it was of a similar base construction as the DHD, there was no apparent power source, nor were there any heat signatures or residual effects from the connection it had appeared to have established with Hoku-au's DHD.

As far as linguistics was concerned, the disk contained all the same symbols as those appearing on the gate at Hoku-au, though Rothman insisted the grouping of the symbols was haphazard and meaningless.

Stepping past computer screens displaying magnified versions of the key taken at various angles, Sam went to the object itself. Something had to be there, she just had to find it. Some part deep within her insisted she focus on the hieroglyphs.

"Okay. What are you hiding?"

A few moments later, it seemed as though some of the glyphs jumped out at her.

Obviously, she had been staring too hard, straining her eyes. Sam closed them and shook her head to clear it, then looked once more.

_There_, again. It was difficult to discern, and impossible to see dead-on. She had to allow her eyes to lose their focus. When she did, seven of the glyphs began to wiggle.

Seven glyphs exactly.

A stargate address.

"Holy Hannah." That was what she had forgotten, the bothersome tickle she had felt upon awakening. She had seen the same occurrence last night, but had shrugged it off as a symptom of her fatigue.

"Major?"

She turned to the lieutenant. "Look here, and tell me what you see."

She led him to take her previous position, even going so far as to tell him where to focus his attention.

"What happened?" She asked when she saw him close his eyes and rub them.

"My eyes must be a little tired."

"Why? Tell me what you saw."

"It was nothing. I just lost focus on some of the symbols."

"How many symbols?"

He shrugged. "I really couldn't say."

"Look again. Count the symbols as they go out of focus."

He bent down to look again, and then rose slowly.

"There were seven," he said softly, seeming curious about the implications, yet skeptical as well.

Carter grabbed a pen and a pad of paper from the table behind her. "Write down those symbols."

He looked one more time, just to be sure, and then did as he was told.

"Holy Hannah," Carter repeated, seeing that he had picked out the same seven she had seen. "We've got it."

* * *

A familiar _whoosh_ and a burst of blue light drew Akeneki from the little hovel Daniel Jackson had built. She moved slowly, a skittish rabbit drawn from its hole by something it had no choice but to investigate. As the gods' light parted the blackness, she became equally curious, hopeful and terrified of what might now come from the Puka-Komo.

The chariot of Daniel Jackson and Colonel O'Neill was a familiar and welcome sight, easing some of her fears. Still, she continued to shiver from a terror so deep it had penetrated to her bones.

"Daniel Jackson?" She called out softly when the odd, rolling creature moved toward her.

But the voice that answered was not the one she so longed to hear. She closed her eyes in disappointment, and then remembered what Daniel Jackson had told her to say when he left for his first excursion in that other, hot, barren place she had somehow left behind.

_If you see a MALP ... a ... a chariot come through the Puka-Komo, speak to it. Tell it 'the DHD has no crystal.' Can you remember that?_

_Of course, Daniel Jackson. The D - H - D has no crystal_.

She repeated the phrase now.

"Thank you, Akeneki," the chariot responded in the voice of Colonel O'Neill. "We'll take care of it. Where's Daniel?"

"Daniel Jackson?" He eyes clouded from the sorrow his name brought to her heart. "Daniel Jackson," she said again, gasping against her building sobs. "The light did not take him, as it took me. I fear Daniel Jackson is still in the _desert_, as he called it." Akeneki dropped to her knees, and her sobs came in earnest. "He will die without the shelter, without the fruit. Please, can you find him?"

**8**

Daniel worked through the night trying to rebuild the shelter he had lost. Lonely frustrated, and in constant pain from his burns and twisted ankle, his progress was slow. When the sun rose he was close to surrendering to its onslaught. He just wanted to crawl into the scant shade of his new, two-walled hovel and let the sun do what it would. Yet something kept him moving. Some part of him beyond thought, beyond awareness drove him ever forward. He had no choice but to obey. He was nothing but a puppet to its demands.

The sun reached its zenith.

Again and again, he awkwardly stabbed his knife into the ground and cut out another chunk of hard, baked clay. He stopped briefly once as an odd sense of deja-vu made him wonder why this activity seemed so familiar. But he was hot, so hot. It just was not worth the effort to try to remember. The sun was burning deep into the core of his brain and erasing any hope he had ever had to think clearly. He could not even be sure anymore why he was digging.

"_If you make that hole much deeper, you'll end up in China."_

_Mommy?_

Yes, that's right. He'd had a mother once, long ago. They had gone to the beach. His father had helped him to make an enormous sand castle, and he was digging the moat. It was almost ready. Soon the tide would come in and fill it all up. He could hear the waves rolling closer and closer.

"_I'm thirsty, Daddy."_

There was a thermos full of cherry Kool-Aid over by his mother's lounge chair. And a chest full of ice. _Ice_. He was so hot. He reached down and grabbed an ice cube, and then put it into his mouth. He sucked it dry, but as the moisture reached his throat he began to choke. He coughed until his lungs burned even more fiercely than the rest of his body.

He spit out a mouthful of dirt.

_Idiot!_ There was no beach. No ice. Angry at his own stupidity, he jabbed the knife into the ground once more.

"_Dan'yel."_

No. That voice was not real.

"_Dan'yel, you work too hard."_

"Stop it!" He rasped.

"_Dan'yel, please come inside. It is too hot."_

He sliced out another brick. "You're not Sha're."

"_Dan'yel, please come inside. I will take care of you."_

He began to slash aimlessly at the ground. "You're not real!"

He stabbed again and again, desperate to dispel the painful memory. The exercise exhausted him quickly. He dropped to the ground, sobbing and struggling for breath.

"_Dan'yel?"_

"You're ... not ... Sha're." He forced the words out, but could no longer be sure whether he believed them.

Curling himself into a little ball, in his little hole, he began to cry. "Sha're," he sobbed.

"_Dan'yel. You are too hot. Here. Take off your jacket. You will feel better."_

He let her help him remove both his jacket and the tee shirt underneath. "I love you Sha're."

* * *

Colonel O'Neill stood with Major Carter and Teal'c in the SGC's control room. They were watching the images sent by the MALP and trying to make sense of Akeneki's words.

When Carter had returned to Hoku-au saying she found the address Daniel and Akeneki had gated to, Jack had thanked whatever gods were in ear-shot. Finally, an ounce of hope had been handed to him -- and not a moment too soon. The natives had definitely been getting restless. Now, back home and finding Akeneki both alive and unharmed, he had dared to allow his hopes to grow higher still. Then the young woman just had to say those cryptic words. _The light did not take him as it took me._

"What the ... what does she mean 'the light did not take him'? They both went through the same wormhole." He turned to Carter. "They _did_ go through the same wormhole, right Major?"

"Yes, sir. Of course."

"Then what is Akeneki talking about? And what's this about a desert? She is in a building, or a ship of some kind, right?"

"Yes, sir. She's definitely in an enclosure. The floor and that wall over there," Carter enhanced the image on the monitor, "they're obviously metallic. And _that_ is a control panel of some kind. The light from the MALP can't reach the ceiling, but if she were outdoors we would pick up some image of the sky. The MALP should at least be able to indicate cloud cover, which could account for the total darkness there. But, this...." She programmed the MALP to focus on the hut Daniel had built into the DHD. "This makes no sense at all. It's clearly organic, probably clay."

"Is it not possible this enclosure exists within a desert," Teal'c offered, "and that Daniel Jackson has somehow been trapped outside?"

"Yes," Carter nodded. "It's possible. It could even be as simple as Akeneki not knowing how to open the door. But it still doesn't explain the clay being where it is."

"Well, I'd say it's past time we found out." Jack was already on the move to finish prepping for another trip through the stargate.

* * *

When the wormhole disengaged, the remaining members of SG1 found themselves in utter darkness.

"Holy Hannah," Major Carter could not help but whisper, sensing some of what Akeneki must have experienced. She could only imagine the nightmare the younger woman had been living, trapped alone in an endless night. Carter's flashlight already in hand, she switched it on and began to scan it around her.

"Akeneki?"

Colonel O'Neill's soft, "Whoa. Hello," drew Carter around.

Akeneki had been caught in the beam from the colonel's light. The young woman shivered like a trapped animal, her hand held up before her to ward off the glare.

"It's okay, Akeneki," Carter assured. "It's us, Colonel O'Neill, Teal'c and me, Samantha Carter." She flashed her beam onto each as she introduced them. Only after she held it up to her own face did she consider the sinister effect such an action could produce. She was glad Teal'c activated the first floodlight immediately afterward. Within minutes, two floodlights effectively, if a bit dimly, illuminated the immediate area surrounding the stargate and the DHD.

"It has been so black here." Akeneki knelt on the hard, cold floor and gazed out at what the light revealed. "I have been so afraid. I stayed in the hut and closed my eyes. I hoped for light." She began to sob softly, and turned an imploring eye to the major. "But I could not pray for it. How could I pray? Daniel Jackson said the gods were dead."

"Oy."

Ignoring the colonel's soft utterance, Carter quickly drew a blanket out of her pack and draped it across Akeneki's shoulders. The island girl was shivering uncontrollably. She needed comforting. But SG1 needed answers more. Sam tried to accomplish both, gently rubbing warmth into Akeneki's arms before starting with the questions.

"Where is Daniel now?"

Akeneki shook her head. The depth of despair in her eyes tore right into Sam's heart. The major thought of Cassandra, remembered the child's horror and loneliness when SG1 had first found her, the sole survivor of a Goa'uld's devastating biological warfare. But Akeneki was a woman, not a child. Daniel had to be the focus right now.

"Daniel Jackson tried to find water," Akeneki offered between sobs. "He ran all night and found nothing. He ran again tonight -- last night? But the light came and took me before he returned. Why am I here and he is not? Why did the light come?"

"Tell me about the light."

"It was brighter than the sun. When it shone into the hut, I thought the sun had fallen from the sky. I was afraid. When the light was gone, even the stars were gone. All the light had gone from the world. Is this the underworld? Is this where the gods have gone? Am I being punished?"

"No, Akeneki. You're not being punished. This is not the underworld. Do you understand me? This is not the underworld."

The younger woman did not appear to be convinced. "Where is Daniel Jackson? Have you saved him?"

"No." Sam clenched her teeth hard at the admission. "Not yet," she finished after a moment. "We still don't know where he is. Akeneki, we need you to help us. Can you do that? Can you help us?"

The trembling woman responded with a slight, uncertain nod.

"Good. Now I need you to tell us everything that happened, from the moment you stepped through the star-- the Puka-Komo."

_(Please proceed to Chapter 5)_

8


	5. Chapter 5

Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**9**

"Colonel O'Neill."

Teal'c's strong voice echoed through the vast, metallic chamber, drawing Jack away from a panel that reminded him strongly of what he had seen on Thor's ship, the Biliskner. O'Neill saw no stones to activate it, but he was sure it must somehow follow the same principles as the controls Thor had shown him.

"What have you got, Teal'c?"

"This is indeed a ship." As he pressed an oval shape in the panel before him, the wall they faced became a screen, projecting the image of a brownish-yellow planet. "We are apparently in orbit around this world. At such a distance, it is possible the stargate and the DHD were transported here from the planet below. However, I am not certain of the method of transport."

"You know how to operate this ... ship?"

"I do not. However, these controls appear to be similar to those on the Biliskner, although I do not believe stones are required for their activation."

"Huh," Jack nodded, satisfied to hear Teal'c repeating his own assumptions. "So you think Daniel's down there?"

"It is possible."

"Okay. Then we just have to find the transporter ... room...," the colonel swiveled about, looking for any indication that there might in fact be more than just this one, gigantic room. "Or whatever." He turned back to Teal'c. "I do have one question, though. Who do you think could have activated it?"

"Colonel," Carter broke in, "according to Akeneki, all the moons on this planet were full last night. Judging from what she said, the moons came into a precise alignment that might not be entirely natural. Sir...," she stared at the planet on the screen, "what if this ship is one of those moons? I mean, it _is_ massive. We can't see from one end of this room to the next. We can't even tell if there _is_ another room."

"Great. We're on the Death Star. You think there may be people on this moon-ship? Maybe it's just so big we haven't seen them yet? Or did Darth Vadar chase them all away?"

"I am not familiar with that system lord."

Sam ignored Teal'c's statement. "It could simply be this cycle was pre-set long ago. The ship could just be following a pre-programmed course."

"Auto-pilot?"

"Something like that. Yes."

"Great. Well, we'll just have to un-program it."

"It may not be that simple. I mean, we still haven't been able to figure out if there was a timing mechanism for that key. This could take months ... maybe years of study. And even then...."

"No, Major. Daniel doesn't have months."

"I know." There was a touch of defiance in Sam's eyes.

_Jack, don't be an ass_, Daniel's voice echoed from somewhere deep inside him. Closing his eyes against an unwanted memory, Jack had to admit to himself that the voice in his head was right. Carter was as concerned as he was.

"Do what you can, Major," he said more compassionately. "Teal'c and I will do a little exploring, see what else -- or maybe even _who_ else is up here."

"Yes, sir."

Fifteen minutes later, as though daylight dawned suddenly, the ship's internal lights came on, fully illuminating the enormous chamber Jack and Teal'c had not yet even managed to exit. Surprised, Carter turned to see him and Teal'c finally approaching the room's end. The colonel waved back at her and said a quick, "Good job, Major," over the radio.

"Sir...," Carter curiously scanned the vast space. "I didn't do it."

Akeneki would be breathing easier. Too bad Jack could not say the same for himself.

* * *

Proceeding cautiously through numerous corridors, poking and prodding and peering into doorways and crossways, Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c found no signs of habitation -- or rather, no _recent_ habitation, for there was evidence of a previous presence. Various furnishings distinguished between what must have been residential wings and working ones. Teal'c had classified this wing as residential due to objects they had found that appeared to be beds or sleeping platforms anchored to the walls. The platforms themselves were solid, untouched by time, but mattresses, pillows, sheets and blankets had all crumbled into fragile bits of deteriorating fabric.

Artifacts.

_Dammit, Daniel. Where are you?_

He pressed another button in another wall in another dead corridor, and found what might have been a nursery long ago, in this galaxy far, far away. Three rows of baby-sized, box-shaped platforms were arranged as they would be in a hospital maternity ward. He thought back to his own son's birth, and tried to imagine these boxes filled with tiny, squirming infants. But somehow what his mind offered instead was a page from _National Geographic_ and a full color spread of the huddled remains of the victims of Mount Vesuvius.

_What the hell's wrong with you?_ He chided himself. So it looks like there was an entire civilization living here, and now they're gone. _So what? Doesn't mean they didn't just leave_.

"O'Neill."

Teal'c's voice was a welcome interruption. The colonel hurried up the corridor to join him. Then, seeing what the Jaffa had found, he let out a low whistle. "Well, looks like we found where some of them went, anyway."

Dozens of gurney-like contraptions filled the room, each containing an adult-sized figure covered with a shimmering, black, textured cloth. Oddly, this fabric was well preserved, offering a stark contrast to the others they had seen. Approaching the closest one, Jack gingerly pulled the cloth away to reveal the mummified remains of something that appeared human.

"Well, it does look like this ship's been deserted for a while."

* * *

It was only a short while after they left the morgue that they came across a long-dead, solitary figure who had clearly not been given the chance to 'rest in peace' as the others had. Propped upright in a chair overlooking a large, table-top console, the skeletal remains kept a lonely vigil over a wall filled with some fifty, round panels.

"Security?" Jack wondered aloud.

He began to press buttons, eager for whatever answers might be revealed on those screens, and long past cautious. Hell, he and Teal'c both might already have the plague. What more could happen?

He was disappointed when the screens began to flicker to life and the first several were lost to static. The rest, however, quickly rekindled his interest.

"Hello," he said to several projections of Carter and Akeneki. "Looks like Mr. Security Guard here was awfully interested in our little entry hall."

Teal'c gave a small nod of concurrence.

"The question is, was he looking for friends or enemies?"

"There is an object beneath his hand."

Jack pried a dictionary-sized, black box from the skeleton's tenuous grip, cringing as bone fragments chipped away and scattered across the floor. "Sorry about that," he offered in apology.

As he examined the object, he was peripherally aware that another group of screens began to brighten with an entirely different scene, but he left the task of studying them to Teal'c -- until the other man called out to him in a soft voice filled with solemn urgency.

"O'Neill."

Tensing, Jack lifted his gaze. He found himself looking at a desert scene and a single, unmoving figure.

"I believe we have found Daniel Jackson," Teal'c finished.

An instant of startled hesitation was followed with a flurry of button pressing as Jack tried to get a closer look, eager to learn whether he had any reason to hope his friend may still be alive; Daniel lay so still, and so utterly exposed to the harsh sun. _Why the hell would he take off his shirt, for crying out loud?_

"O'Neill!" Teal'c shouted just seconds before Carter broke in on the radio. In synch with both, a glaring, white light appeared on all of the working monitors.

After the light faded, Carter repeated her own urgent shout. "Colonel!"

"Are you all right, Major? What was that?"

"The transporter. Sir, we've got Daniel."

Jack quickly tucked the black box under his arm as he began to retrace his steps to the stargate chamber.

* * *

O'Neill and Teal'c jogged back through the corridors then sprinted the huge expanse of the gate room to where Akeneki sat with a crumpled figure across her lap.

"Geez, Daniel." Jack cringed at the condition of his friend.

A blistered hand, so red it looked raw, rose slightly, and then fell back. "Aaakgh...." The sound came from somewhere deep in Daniel's throat, his tongue too swollen to allow words to form.

Jack knelt beside him. "Don't try to talk, Daniel. Don't worry about anything. We'll get you out of here in a minute."

He studied the younger man's face for a moment longer, awed by the alien nature of it, looking for something familiar. Red, blistered eyes swollen shut, Daniel hardly looked human. Jack shook his head and closed his own eyes, wishing he could open them to a different image. As he rose, he reached out instinctively to give his friend a gentle pat, but aborted the comforting gesture at the last possible moment. Daniel's burns were so extensive, Jack dared not touch him.

"Carter?" Startled by the croaking sound of his own voice, Jack cleared his throat. "Get that DHD working yet?"

"Just now."

"Then what are we waiting for? Teal'c, help Carter dial us home."

"We've already got the first chevron locked," the major answered instead.

"Oh. Good," he said distractedly. "Good," he repeated. He was feeling unnaturally detached from the action going on around him, and was reassured to know the rest of his team were doing exactly what needed to be done. "By the way, nice job on that transporter ... thing."

"Thank you, sir. But I'm not sure I can take credit for that."

"Oh?"

"It just...," she shrugged, "worked."

"Uh huh." Feeling increasingly uncomfortable, he looked around the enormous room. There was something about it, something that made it feel even emptier than before. It was almost as though even the ghosts had abandoned it, as though giving Daniel back to him had been some lost, wandering spirit's final task before drifting off to ... wherever it was lost, wandering spirits went.

"Jack, don't be an ass." Realizing he had spoken aloud, the colonel looked up defiantly, relieved to note that the stargate had drowned out his words. "Let's get out of here," he said then to no one but himself.

**10**

Daniel saw Jack enter the room, and watched as the colonel's gaze followed his nurse's exit. A moment later, Jack awkwardly approached the bed. He seemed to press his hands deeper into his pockets with each step.

"You look ... better."

It was not hard for Daniel to recognize the colonel's hesitation as the older man sought an appropriate word. To say 'good' would have been a glaring lie. Daniel's arms were no longer swollen, but his skin was peeling off in a blizzard of flakes. He could only imagine what his face looked like.

"Yeah," he replied casually. "Right. I'm just ... molting."

"Well, I guess that'll teach you to go off running through wormholes without your SPF-500."

Daniel was surprised to see Jack's countenance change drastically as he spoke. The punch-line of his little jest came out seemingly by rote. There had been no feeling in it. Now, the light mood he had attempted was gone so completely Daniel could imagine someone had flicked a switch in the colonel's brain.

"Daniel, if you ever ... _ever_ do something like that again, I swear I'll...." Apparently more frustrated than angry, the fire in Jack's voice fell to embers before he was finished.

"You'll what, Jack?" Daniel caught and held his friend's eyes as yet another switch was triggered.

Colonel O'Neill let out an exasperated sigh. "Just promise me you won't...."

"You know I can't do that. I mean, come on, Jack. Face it. I did what I had to do. And I'd do it again. I don't regret it."

"You almost died."

Jack's look now surprised Daniel more than ever before. There was something in his eyes, a depth of anguish the younger man could never have expected to see directed his way. That look made Daniel want to give in to his friend's demand -- more, to give in to the need he saw in Jack's eyes. But he could not change who he was, not to appease anyone else's conscience. _Not even Sha're?_ He let the thought die quickly. His entire life, his very existence would be different if he still had Sha're.

"And Akeneki _would_ have died." The rightness of the words helped to ease the growing struggle in his mind.

Jack closed his eyes and shook his head. "Okay, Lancelot," he said softly, "then I guess I'll just have to make damn sure I don't let you get into a situation where...."

"Jack--"

"Yeah. I know," he answered softly. "You're gonna make an old man of me yet."

* * *

During another visit a few weeks later, Jack found Daniel busily at work in his office; _very_ busily at work. The anthropologist paid no attention to the light knock on the frame of his open door.

"Helll-ooo?"

A few more moments passed before Daniel offered a quick, "Hi, Jack." Still, he did not turn away from the computer monitor.

Jack cleared his throat. "I hear Carter managed to download the data from the moon-ship lap-top thing I brought back."

As though he had said the magic words to release his friend from the computer's pull, Daniel finally leaned back in his chair, sighing heavily.

"My God, Jack," the younger man said softly. "This is...," he shook his head, seeming unable to complete the statement.

"So you can translate it, then?"

"Yes. Actually, it wasn't difficult at all. The same data is repeated in multiple contexts, and in several different languages, two of which are direct derivations of...."

"Ahhhh!" The colonel held up a hand to ward off further explanation. "You can translate it? That's all I need to know."

"Yes." Daniel looked intently at him.

"And?"

"The mummies you found were the last survivors of an entire race. They ... they destroyed themselves. First there was an epidemic of some kind. I don't know. I can't tell for sure whether it killed all the babies, or whether it made the population barren, or what, but they lost the ability to reproduce. One side blamed the other, and suddenly the whole world was at war.

"The ship ... the moon ... ship, was an experiment in colonization. When the war broke out, a secret faction with members from four separate governments sent their scientists and other key figures out in the ship to protect them. They were also in possession of the stargate, but I don't know why they didn't use it. Anyway, they sent the stargate to the ship to protect that as well. When the ship came back.... It's hard to tell how long they were gone, maybe twenty years or so ... but when they came back, the planet was, well.... There was nothing left. Their people had destroyed each other. They had destroyed their entire world."

"Huh." Jack replied noncommittally. "And you got all that out of the lap-top thing I brought back?"

"That's not all."

"You mean there's more? Huh. I guess that thing I found was pretty valuable."

Daniel glared at his friend. "Yes, Jack." Then he sat back, cleared his throat, and offered, "actually, you found the 'gods' of Hoku-au."

"Oh?" Jack said with a raised eyebrow and a look of smug satisfaction.

"When they found their world was destroyed, they started using the stargate. Hoku-au was pretty inviting to them, but they didn't want to lose who they were. If they sent everyone to Hoku-au, then eventually all that would remain of their own race would be ... what you found, actually; an empty ship. So, instead they tried to rebuild their race by cross-breeding with the Wae'ana."

"I take it, it didn't work?"

"Well, it seemed to have worked for a few generations. But eventually the epidemic proved too strong. It wiped them out. The last survivors made the key, and this ... your lap-top, as a last ditch effort to show other races who they had been."

Daniel turned back to the monitor. "Look at this."

Jack sat down and began watching a video playback of glass cities, marble sculptures, flowering gardens, thick forests and animals that looked, well, odd. Accompanying the images was a soundtrack of widely varied musical types, from smooth, relaxing sounds to wild, ear piercing noises.

"This is what they had, and what they lost," Daniel emphasized.

Laughing children played on rainbow-colored see-saws. Families picnicked on blue, grassy planes. An art gallery exhibit showed paintings of crazy landscapes and all too normal looking portraits.

"This all looks pretty familiar," Jack spoke softly, almost reverently. "It's actually kind of creepy."

"This could be us, Jack. This could be exactly ... us. What if it happened here? Wouldn't we want to do exactly the same thing, record what we had, try to survive anyway we could, even if it was just on tape?"

Jack shrugged, and then nodded, saying nothing. Several moments passed in silence.

"I was there, Jack," Daniel said finally. "There was nothing. Nothing. Just ... clay. Miles and miles of dry, cracked dirt. How could all of this," he pointed to the monitor, "become that?"

The colonel gave another shrug. "Big, honkin' space guns, probably."

"That's not what I mean."

"I know." Jack caught Daniel's gaze and held it. "It's not gonna happen here. Let it go."

"How can I? How can _you_? We've got to do something for these people."

"They're dead, Daniel. You can't exactly help them anymore."

Daniel glared at his friend and clenched his jaw. Jack was right, of course. That did not make him feel any better. "We can't even talk about them. We can't share these images with the rest of the world ... our world. We can't use them as an example and tell all the governments to take their fingers off the buttons." He sighed. "There's got to be something we _can_ do."

"Well," Jack offered, "we could show this to someone."

Daniel's interest was instantly piqued. When no answer was directly forthcoming, he raised his eyebrows, silently asking, '_who?_'

"The people of Hoku-au. Akeneki. The Big Kahuna. All the rest. These are, after all, their gods."

Startled and uncertain about Jack's suggestion, Daniel pondered the implications. "But what would that do to them?" He asked after a moment. "I mean, how would it affect them? Their beliefs? Their lives?"

"Oh, well, I think we've already had a pretty big impact there." Jack cleared his throat. "They weren't doing so hot when we left 'em, Daniel. They don't know what to believe anymore." He looked at the ground, seeming to fight a momentary battle with his own, private demons. "Look," he said then, "Akeneki will have told them by now all about the SGC -- the parts of it she saw, anyway. Why not let her see where her ancestors went away to -- or tried to go away to -- for so long?"

"Are you trying to make amends, Jack?"

"Well, don't you think we should? I mean, you're as much at fault as I am. Hell, you went right out and told Akeneki her gods were dead, for crying out loud."

Daniel closed his eyes, stung.

"Sorry," Jack offered softly. "You didn't have much choice. None of us had any choice."

"But we changed their entire world," Daniel finished for him. "We changed everything they think, everything they do. I guess you could even say we started an epidemic."

"So, maybe we give them a history for the future we took away?"

Daniel looked up, stunned by the colonel's words. "That's pretty profound, Jack."

He shrugged. "What do you say?"

_(Please proceed to Chapter 6)_

11


	6. Chapter 6

Last Call for Paradise, _Freya-Kendra_

**11**

Since several months of intense analysis of the data from the black box revealed further startling connections between the people from the moon-ship and the people of Hoku-au, General Hammond did not require much convincing. He would not release the black box itself, but by the time Hoku-au's Harvest festival rolled around, he did agree to send SG1 back through the Puka-Komo with an SGC regulation lap-top uploaded with the box's data.

"Daniel Jackson!"

The team turned as one to see Akeneki running towards them. A moment later, the young woman threw her arms around Daniel's neck.

"Daniel Jackson!"

Yet it was not gleeful excitement that moved her. She was crying.

Concerned, Daniel pried her away and stepped back to look into her eyes. "Akeneki, what's wrong?"

"Daniel Jackson, they do not believe where I have been, what I have seen. They say I have been tricked by demons."

"What demons?"

She hesitated, looking from Daniel to his companions, and then back again. "They say you are demons."

Daniel listened to his teammates reactions -- a surprised '_what?_' from Sam and a derisive '_oh, for crying out loud_,' from Jack -- but he did not acknowledge them.

"What does Kupuna Kane say?" He asked Akeneki.

"He says nothing. He will make no judgment without seeking to know more."

"Kupuna Kane is wise. We have brought with us the knowledge he seeks."

"He will know the truth?"

"Yes. Everyone will know the truth."

* * *

Daniel presented the story of Hoku-au's lost gods in the ceremonial hut, to a gathering of all the villages' elders. Akeneki sat in a secluded corner, watching intently. Neither truly a part of this gathering nor of her own village, she looked like a lost soul hungering for acceptance. Daniel started to feel as though he were her lawyer, for surely these old men were deciding her fate. Stealing quick glances her way as often as he could, Daniel gave her silent assurances that she would belong once more. She would no longer be outcast.

As the video images gave credence to his tale, Daniel saw that his audience appeared convinced, even awe-struck. _Good_. Now, hopefully, they were would be ready to learn the truth about their 'key.'

He called up the picture of an elderly man. Clean shaven, white hair cropped short and carefully combed back, he stood casually straight-backed, a posture Daniel had grown accustomed to seeing held by military personnel. The man's wide, blue, slightly upturned eyes met the camera with confidence. Everything about him exuded authority. He had the look of a true leader.

When this countenance had first appeared on Daniel's monitor back in his office at the SGC, the anthropologist could not help but sit back in his chair and attentively listen to the man's words. That his speech had been unfamiliar at first and could only leave Daniel guessing at what was said had not lessened the impact. This man would have silenced a room in his day, his voice as commanding as his appearance. Dr. Jackson was counting on his own current audience to react in the same manner.

He could not have expected their startled gasps and cries of recognition.

"Excuse me?" Daniel inquired. "What?"

All of the elders turned their attention to one of their number. Daniel did so as well.

"Wow." He could say nothing more.

Somewhere behind him, he heard Sam's soft, "Holy Hannah."

The man before him could have been the moon-ship commander's twin.

"Well, this does seem somehow to verify what I was just about to tell you," Daniel continued. "This was a leader among the people I have been telling you about, the people you have referred to as your gods. He commanded the great ... sky ... ship his people had fled to when their world was destroyed. He was also one of the last survivors. He knew his people were dying, so he sent them to Hoku-au. He wanted them to live out their last days in a land of peace and beauty ... Paradise."

He paused to observe the impact of his words.

"The gods walked among us?" Kupuna Kane asked.

"Yes, grandfather; much as the Wae'ana do now." Daniel looked to Akeneki and grinned at the wonder growing in her eyes.

"Then Kahiko a'e Makaio is a son of the gods?" Kupuna Kane indicated the commander's look-alike.

"I ... it would seem so," Daniel answered, confused, "although the commander stayed behind, his records do tell of a brother. But, with the epidemic," he shrugged. "Sam?"

She shook her head at the irony. "Well, most medicines are plant-based. Given the tropical nature of Hoku-au, it is possible they found a cure here."

"Then their race need not have died out," Teal'c concluded. "Their insistence upon maintaining their culture aboard the ship was misguided."

"Looks that way," Jack agreed.

"Well, in any case, he did not want his people to be forgotten," Daniel continued finally. "So they took with them a special device, which they set upon the D ... the _altar_, and secured in place. Twice each year, in conjunction with a very specific alignment of stars, this device would activate the stargate, the Puka-Komo, in order to allow visitors to know of this once great civilization."

"This device was the key?"

"Yes, grandfather. It was never meant to be removed."

"If this device was to work only at Planting and Harvest, why did it work after Kaakakona had already seen its use?"

Sam stepped in once more, offering the explanation she had developed weeks before. "We figure it had something to do with the fact that the device was no longer locked in place as originally intended. That it had been removed and apparently buried could indicate it was no longer working properly. We believe it may have been causing the Puka-Komo to open too often. If anyone went through at any time other than during the Planting or the Harvest, they would have ended up on the planet, rather than the ship."

Expecting understanding, she was instead met with stares of confusion.

"No one can survive on the planet. But the commander insisted that somehow, some of his ancestors may have survived deep underground. If they began to explore the surface, they might find the star... the Puka-Komo. He arranged it to be set to your coordinates, so if anyone found it, it would be easy for them to gate to Hoku-au. Except, during Planting and Harvest, the Puka-Komo was programmed to return to the ship. He had everything well coordinated. But over time some of the systems broke down. During this Planting, for example, the Puka-Komo wasn't sent back to the ship until more than three days later than it was supposed to. That delay was nearly fatal to Daniel and Akeneki. If they had gone through at any other time, they would have died."

It was impossible to tell whether the elders understood her explanation or not. There were no questions. There was not further discussion at all, just a room full of empty stares.

Sam looked to Daniel for help.

"Okay. The commander put the stories of his people into data files which are now stored in this computer. We can teach you how to read them."

"These stories, they are the voice of the gods?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking, yes. Although you won't actually hear their voices, as you heard this man's ancestor. You can read their messages, their words. If you want, you can even read them out loud, in your own voice."

"These words will come alive when we read them?"

"Come alive?" It took a moment before Daniel realized Kupuna Kane referred to the commander's video. "Oh, no. Those videos are something different. By words, I mean these." He typed in a command, and the screen was filled with letters and symbols. "This is how the stories are told."

Kupuna Kane looked skeptical.

"It is true," Akeneki broke in.

"Yes. Yes," Daniel added enthusiastically. "Akeneki already understands what it means to record and read words."

Kupuna Kane gave the woman a fierce look. Daniel was not sure if it meant disapproval or disbelief.

"How has she come about this knowledge?"

"When we were lost in the desert, I taught her," Daniel answered.

Akeneki timidly approached, and then knelt beside Kupuna Kane. With her finger, she began to write letters in the sand.

"What is this?" The old man asked angrily.

"Akeneki," she answered. "This is my name, in words."

"Well, in letters, actually, but...," Daniel let the rest fall away.

"Tonight," Kupuna Kane said to Daniel, "you will teach Akeneki to read the stories in this box."

Daniel chuckled in surprise. "Um, it's actually going to take a lot longer than one night--"

"You will begin now."

Kupuna Kane ushered the other elders from the room, and bade the rest of SG1 to follow.

"Come," he said to them. "We will feast tonight. We owe you a debt of gratitude for showing us the faces of our gods."

"A feast?" Jack asked eagerly. "Flowers? Dancing? All that? I'm game. Carter? Teal'c?" He looked back at Daniel and Akeneki. "Well, have fun kids. Remember, no TV 'til the homework's done."

After they had gone, Daniel turned a bewildered look on the young woman whose life had been changed yet again by his intervention. "What just happened?"

Her responding giggle made Paradise seem possible once more.

* * *

_end_

Final Note: I lost the original electronic files for this story, and recently found myself re-typing it in its entirety. In the process, I was curious about the Hawaiian names I had included. Therefore, in a follow-up review, I tried reverse look-ups, ie Hawaiian to English, in other on-line dictionaries, and I did find some slight variations. I also failed to find some of the words already noted above.

From "Ulukau Hawaiian Electronic Dictionary"

Kupuna = Grandparent, ancestor, relative or close friend of the grandparent's generation.

Kāne = Male, masculine; man's work requiring strength.

Puka = Hole, door, entrance, gate, opening, etc. To perforate, puncture, make a hole or opening.

Komo = 1 - To enter, go into, penetrate ; 2 - Ring, thimble.

Hoku = Night of the full moon.

Au = Period of time, age, era, epoch, etc.

From "Honu Online"

Akeneki = Agnes

Makaio = Matthew

6


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